Dime looks at five D-League players that could get called up: “Mustafa Shakur: Shakur has followed the footsteps of guys like Ed Cota and Hollis Price as college stars who couldn’t find a niche in the NBA. But so far in the D-League season, Shakur is displaying attributes that should catch the eyes of NBA scouts. Shakur is showing effectiveness both as a scorer and distributer. His shot selection and accuracy has improved since his Pac-10 days. On the road last week against Maine, Mustafa had 21 points, 7 assists and 6 steals. If he can cut down his turnovers (he’s averaging 4 turnovers per contest), then he will get serious consideration for 10-day contract.”

Westbrook slumping: “After missing a fourth-quarter layup against Dallas, Russell Westbrook jumped up and slapped the net out of frustration when play stopped. Westbrook isn’t a great shooter but he’s rarely experienced a slump like his current one. Over the past seven games, Westbrook has shot 32.1 percent. Remove a solid outing against Memphis and Westbrook has shot 28.0 percent in OKC’s other six December games, 17.6 percent on 3-pointers. “He has a good shot and has good form,” said coach Scott Brooks. “He just has to keep getting reps in practice… It’s going to improve. It’s not improving at the speed that he probably wants, or I would like, but he’s practicing hard. That’s all I can ask.” Westbrook shot 39.8 percent overall his rookie season, 27.1 percent beyond the arc. His shooting stats are similar but have dipped slightly below last year’s pace because of his recent slump.”

Tim Legler has OKC as one of his top storylines: “The emergence of Oklahoma City in the West. Kevin Durant, no longer a one-dimensional player looking for his next forced shot, has become an MVP candidate by learning how to make the game easier for his teammates, conscientiously defending and becoming a dominant rebounder at his position. Coach Scotty Brooks has done a fantastic job with this group in making them believe they can matter now. Along with Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, and rookie James Harden, Durant has the Thunder poised for a run at the playoffs, and we have another relevant team in a league that has become increasingly top-heavy in recent years.”

SI has the Thunder as one of its early season surprises: “That the Thunder are much improved isn’t surprising. But their road success — usually an elusive thing for young teams — has been eye-opening. With third-year forward Kevin Durant blossoming into a superstar, the Thunder already own road victories against San Antonio, Miami and Utah. In fact, with six wins in their first 11 road games, the Thunder are only two short of last season’s total.”

Who would have thought shoes would make such a story? Here’s another on KD’s new kicks: “There’s an obvious reason the Thunder lost to the Mavericks on Wednesday night: It’s gotta be the shoes. Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant broke out his new sneakers and most of his teammates also joined the action — sporting the bright Creamsicle Nike shoes. A new, less-blinding design may need to be in the works after Durant matched his lowest scoring outing of the season — 12 points — and ended his streak of nine straight games scoring 25 or more.”

Dime has Scott Brooks as one of its top five coaches: “If the playoffs started today, the Thunder would not be in the playoffs. Odds are, they probably won’t be come April. But what Brooks has done with the Thunder has been nothing short of amazing. Brooks is a young coach, who is coaching an even younger roster in a loaded Western Conference. They’ve dropped 3 straight, but the Thunder are still 12-12 and have had big wins against the Spurs, Jazz and Magic. Now that he has the confidence of his extremely talented young core (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, James Harden), Brooks could grow up with them in this league and be the coach that will take OKC to a championship some day.”

The Thunder welcomes the one-millionth fan this evening. Maybe it’ll be you!

Update: I feel like this is worth mentioning. Last night KD tweeted about how he wasn’t on Twitter because he wasn’t into all the negative messages he had gotten. I sent him a tweet saying we’re still behind him. Now comes this today from our friend Mr. Traber, via Twitter: “@Ch0daBoy I read your tweets to Durant. You are sick!! Jock sniffer. You and Royce. Do you feel good cause you tweet KD? JOKE!!! … These little punks who come after me tweet NBA players like they know them. ” Great game KD” and “get ‘em next time” Pathetic … No wonder they hide behind their computers. ” Shaq, you gonna play tommorow”. Im sure they answer you. LOL!! Little Royce and his boys. Cute.” His fascination with me is slightly disturbing.

Luckily, being out of market, I wouldn't even know who Traber is if it weren't for this site. Somebody in the summer posted a youtube video of him charging the mound (after the Collison call in dust up). But really, he should be thanking Royce and all of you for making him some sort of celebrity that people up in Oregon know who he is.

You know what they say: there is no such thing as "bad" publicity. Ha!

Forgive me for going off-topic: I just posted a lengthy (even rambling) analysis of Jeff Green and the Thunder O on the JG thread. Bottom line: Green is the worst jump shooter of the starters (by %). He is hitting 30% of his jumpers, from inside or outside the arc. Worse than Westbrook, worse than Sefolosha. This is the REAL Jeff Green conundrum.

He must improve his percentage on jumpers. If he cannot, trade him, before the rest of the league figures this out. And start Harden, yesterday. We need to find out if these guys will mesh on offense. If not, we need to make some changes. The window is closing! Once we sign Uncle Jeff to mid-range contract, his trade value is going to plummet. Start Harden now!

So, by the same reasoning Traber's using, if you're a fan in the stands, you shouldn't say anything like, "You'll git 'em next time," or "Way to go," "Nice shot" or essentially anything unless you've established a personal relationship with the player. Twitter is just another way to communicate with people.

If Durant only wanted to communicate with his personal friends on Twitter and Facebook, he could easily do just that. Instead, he allows anyone who wants to read what he has to say and respond directly to him. Furthermore, he's said that's what he wants to do.

I've been enjoying NBA 2K10 for some time now. Amusingly, my play style is eerily similar to that of the real-life Thunder: solid defense, but not-so-solid at the PG position; less-than-stellar 3-point shooting; non-existent post play. With any luck, as the year goes on, both the real team and I will improve in one or more of these areas :)

Also, if you really want Traber taken off the air, you should be writing to the companies that air ads on the Sports Animal. Their monetary support is what allows the Sports Animal to function. If they decided to pull away their support because their customers disliked their company's association (either directly or indirectly) with personalities on the station, the Sports Animal would listen.

Direct emails to the station are much more difficult to monetize. Needless to say, the opinion of one listener is much less valuable (a fraction of a fraction of potential future Nielsen ratings which are used to market their services to companies) than the dollars paid to the station from local businesses.

Traber is not unlike many sports reporters and radio personalities. He's there to facilitate arguments and, when none present themselves, to create arguments. His livelihood is BASED upon the attention he gets. There is no negative attention; it is all positive as far as his employers are concerned, at least so long as he isn't involved in some scandal.

That he is an idiot is irrelevant.

If you want him to go away, stop giving him attention. I stopped supporting the Sports Animal over a year ago. I no longer listen to their ads or the people who broadcast their opinions on their station.

I'm sure Traber made that comment on Twitter because no one was making a comment to him (nothing to facilitate, so he's creating. And succeeding.)

Do you honestly learn anything from listening to that station? Listen to the Spy or NPR. You'll be enriched, learn something, or both.

yeah traber doesnt know basketball at all, it would be nice if they had someone who actually knew what they were talking about with regards to the NBA, at least darnell on the oklahoman is from a place where they have had pro basketball

I remember a few years ago the Blazers went on a 15 game winning streak, then teams started taking them seriously and they wound up not making the playoffs that year. I think we're at that same point where the best teams in the league are noticing us and now we are getting their best shot.

I think we need to get our own Cardboard Jim Traber but spruce it up like the owner in Major League. Only instead of his naked body, we'll have his massive insecurity as the payoff underneath the clothes. Or maybe his lack of intelligence.

After reading his tweets from today/yesterday, I emailed over to the Sports Animal. I'm going to put it on here, but I'm mostly hoping that many of you will follow along and send them something with your displeasure.***I'm curious as to how you have kept Jim Traber on the air so long. This man has proven himself to one of the most ignorant, boorish, self-absorbed people with access to a microphone and yet he continues to get airtime all day long. He is the reason why I refuse to listen to your station unless the Thunder are playing. His verbal abuse of anyone who disagrees with him is, quite honestly, pathetic and completely immature. His twitter account is full of insults and middle-school verbal sparring.

I regularly read and comment on several large Thunder and OKC blogs. The consensus among everyone is that Traber is bringing the Sports Animal down below any sign of respectability and is also the reason they refuse to listen. His feud with the Daily Thunder blog is pathetic and only shows that he will only discuss items with those who agree with him... everyone else is refused airtime while he yells into the microphone like a toddler scorned.

This is my plea to do something about the quality of your radio host. If you need an immediate upgrade, you need only to randomly pick a 20-something fan from Loud City during a Thunder game and I GUARANTEE you that your quality will skyrocket by that factor alone. Traber continues and will continue to bring disrepute to your radio station and keep many knowledgeable sports fans from listening to your station and participating in big league sports radio. Please bring your station out of the minor leagues of sports broadcasting with the rest of OKC.

@Roycewow i gotta say traber is a total hater. I think he is jealous of DT and all the attention thunder players give this site.btw can somebody make a traber tee? probably anything involving his infamous trip, fall and kick to the face by that jap dude.

MartzMimic :NBA2K10 is on my Santa list, along with Xbox live (which is on my son’s Santa list).I thought Darnell had a nice story today on KD’s defensive improvements.

The part about sharing time guarding James, Nowitzki, and Anthony was techinically correct, but he only guarded them a small amount of the time . . . he made it seem like he had a major hand in it - that doesnt take away anything from Durant (who has excelled on defense), but I wish he would've written that paragraph better . . .